The present invention generally relates to the field of customer requests and contact management. More specifically, it relates to the field of providing solutions to customers' queries through a web-based system.
Due to the competitive environment, various companies are competing to provide better services to their customers, so that the customers have to put in a minimal effort to obtain solutions to their queries.
One of the problems faced by these companies is providing solutions to queries from customers in minimal time. The customers of a company may contact the customer service representatives of the company through various modes, such as a telephone call, chat, or email, and they may have to wait for some time, perhaps a long period of time, before the customer service representatives respond.
In the present state of the art, companies provide a list of customer service contact numbers on their web pages. Some existing companies also have individual web interfaces to provide links for initiating other modes of contact.
However, companies may not be able to provide a customer with a single web page from which the customer can gather information about all the modes of contact the companies may provide. Moreover, companies may not notify the customer regarding the time for which the customer has to wait to get a response to a query. Further, these companies may not provide customers with an option to obtain solutions to their queries through an automated response system. This may lead to higher costs for providing services to their customers.
Moreover, in the present art, the availability of different modes of contact on separate web pages results in higher staffing requirements. At times, the customer is not aware of other alternatives to resolve his/her query or to make a request, which, in turn, increases the frequency of telephone calls to contact these companies. This leads to prominent peaks and valleys in the incoming and outgoing calling patterns of a company. In addition, customers are usually not informed about the new products and services launched by these companies. Moreover, companies may not conduct customer service related surveys. In case these companies conduct such surveys, they are costly, time consuming, or too cumbersome and complicated. Thus these companies may not keep track on customer feedback. In addition, companies may not maintain a comprehensive collection of data relating to interactions between the company and its customers.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a system and a method that would enable companies to provide better services to their customers. Further, there is a need for a system that provides various modes through which companies may be contacted on a single user interface or web page. In addition, there is a need for a system that enables a customer to establish contact with a customer service representative through two or more modes of contact at a particular time. Moreover, there is a need for a system that would enable companies to notify a customer about the time for which the customer has to wait before a response is provided to his/her query through the different modes of contact. Further, there is a need to provide a system that would enable companies to store certain automated responses to frequently asked questions by customers, thereby reducing the overall cost of providing services. There is a need of a system that would provide an option to customers to establish contact through other modes of contact when the time spent by the customers exceeds a threshold time through a particular mode of contact. There is a need of a system that would provide an update on the status of a request or query made by customers through a web page. Further, there is a need of a system to enable a customer service representative to co-browse a web page along with a customer and fill forms along with the customer. In addition, there is a need to provide a system and a method that would enable companies to more easily conduct customer service related surveys as well as maintain comprehensive data related to interactions between companies and their customers.